Jerome

ON ST. JEROME, BISHOP OF PAVIA IN INSUBRIA.

From the monuments of Pavia. Eighth century.

St. Jerome, bishop of Pavia in Insubria.

BY THE AUTHOR I. B. S.

How uncertain often and how obscure are the affairs of the church of Pavia or Ticinum, especially those which pertain to not a few of the more ancient bishops of that city, inasmuch as they first began to be collected and arranged toward the end of the sixteenth century, you will find noted and lamented more than once in these our Acts; Unknown to the ancient calendars, for the writers themselves, all of them more recent, do not agree among themselves either in series, or in number, or in age. Breventano and Gualla almost dispense with the chronological order; Antonio Maria Spelta numbers St. Jerome as the 26th, Ughelli as the 40th, de Gaspari as the 39th. Equally doubtful is the date, which cannot be fixed by certain reckonings, as will manifestly appear below: as also the time of his rule, extended by some to nine, by others to thirteen years. Nor in narrating his deeds is there greater concord, namely such as seem received from mere tradition, supported by no ancient surety. Moreover all those writers emulously proclaim their bishop holy, although he is unknown in all the more ancient calendars, whence I would believe there arose to Castellanus the scruple whereby he did not report him; expressly asserting in his index that he was omitted by him on this day, although he sufficiently shows that he is well known to himself.

[2] Nor indeed did even the Italian martyrologists of the sixteenth century itself, Maurolico, he is noted by a few more recent writers, Felici, or Galesini (for to this last it is falsely attributed by Ferrari in the General Catalogue), ever make mention of St. Jerome of Pavia; so that it seems plainly wonderful that the memory of that Saint was so long buried, which Ferrari in a manner revived, and after him Constantine Ghini in the Nativities of the Canons Regular. But this seemed to me far more wonderful, that I long ago found him noted in the ancient Beneventan Usuardine codex, written in Gothic letters, which we call the Vatican under number 5949, where in express words he is announced: "The nativity of St. Jerome bishop of Ticinum in St. Sophia." That announcement impelled me to inquire more laboriously by what means at last or on what occasion the cult of that St. Jerome, perhaps neglected among his own at that time, migrated from Pavia to Benevento; of which matter no vestige has hitherto occurred, nor further will occur, unless the possessors of that church review the cult of their own or of foreign Saints as accurately as they have enumerated other things which Ughelli published in the Chronicle of St. Sophia in tome 8 of Italia Sacra.

[3] doubtless from Beneventan monuments. However these things may be, from that or a similar codex it is necessary that Greven drew St. Jerome, from whom he flowed thereafter into Molanus and into the German of Canisius or Walasser, in the same but a briefer phrase: "At Pavia, of St. Jerome bishop." And these are the only martyrologists among whom I have found a commemoration of that holy bishop. I am even more led to believe that the Beneventan announcement passed also into other codices, I know not which; because the manuscript additions to the praised Greven, which we are wont to cite under the name of the Charterhouse of Brussels, make mention of Benevento, although we have long possessed in our Museum the very exemplar to which those additions are appended. Moreover it is there inscribed thus: "At Benevento in Holy Sophia, of St. Jerome bishop." Nor should you doubt that the bishop of Ticinum or Pavia is here understood, since Vipera acknowledges no Saint of that name in his Catalogue. Further, that the cult of St. Jerome is sufficiently established from these, I think is beyond controversy: would that Acts survived from which we might be more certainly taught concerning his virtues and miracles.

[4] Ferrari saw and read and cites the chief Pavian writers Gualla, Eulogy. Breventano, and Spelta, from whom he took his eulogy; which it is better to transcribe, on whatever authority it at last rests, than to connect the various phrases of those three. From Ferrari Ghini seems to have drawn his own, deviating not a little from the age which we have hitherto tried in vain to elucidate. Thus reads Ferrari: "Jerome succeeded St. Theodore the bishop, being now advanced in age, not without a divine prodigy: for when St. Theodore had ended his life, and Augustine the archdeacon, having been elected by the clergy and people, as he had canvassed, set out for Rome to obtain confirmation from the supreme Pontiff, and on his return had died (which St. Theodore had before foretold to him), and the clergy together with the people had assembled at the greater church to demand a prelate from God by prayers, a voice as of a boy was heard, that all the priests should be summoned: which being done, the same voice, while on the following day all were intent on prayer for the election of a new bishop, was heard to say that one of the priests was absent.

[5] Inquiry being made, it was found that Jerome, an old man, sacristan of the church of St. Mary of the Perticae, was not present: from Ferrari, who, when he had soon been summoned and was present, that same voice manifested to all that he was the one whom God had chosen for the episcopal office. Wherefore, consecrated after the custom, he entered upon the pastoral care. Living, he shone with very many miracles, since even by the mere touch of his pallium he healed the sick. When at some time he was giving alms to the poor after his custom, among them he covered with his own garment one trembling with a great fever, and naked, and suddenly that man was healed. When, called to the king, he had come in haste, and vexed by the heat from the journey had taken off his pallium, it, placed on a ray of the sun (which seemed to him a pole, pertica), was seen (a wonderful thing) to remain in the air. When he was going to the shrine of St. Stephen the protomartyr outside the city, a woman possessed by a demon was at once freed at the coming of the holy bishop. Finally, when he had presided over the church of Ticinum for thirteen years, he departed from life on the 11th of the Kalends of August, Hadrian I being supreme Pontiff, and was buried in the church which is called St. Mary of the Pertica, of which he had been sacristan."

[6] And this is nearly the eulogy of Breventano and Gualla, who, like the others, was ignorant of his age. the grand indulgence being deservedly passed over which those writers say was revealed to the Saint in some chapel of St. Hadrian, not rightly measuring more ancient things by the usage of their own age, to say nothing of other matters which Ferrari most rightly abridged or neglected. But whether the things there narrated, the miracles, be sufficiently proved, I for my part would not dare to assert: for as that suspension of the pallium from a ray of the sun (given more than once this very month) seems fetched from elsewhere, so easily may other things too have been transferred hither. There follows an apt observation of Ferrari. "At what time chiefly he died," he says, "could by no means be known, some writing that he died while Aistulf king of the Lombards was still alive, others while Desiderius the last king was reigning. But if he departed while Hadrian was Pontiff, he must have died under Desiderius," according to the calendars of Panvinio. Let us candidly say that all the conjectures of Breventano and others evince this one thing, which he himself rightly confesses, that no writer has been found who noted at what time this holy bishop lived. Gualla prudently abstained from defining the age; but Spelta, while he named the times of Hadrian I, and connected them with Constantine V, plainly showed that he was vending things equally uncertain and inept.

[7] Ghini contracted it into a few words, Let us now hear Ghini writing thus: "At Pavia, of St. Jerome the 26th bishop of that city, a man of such sanctity that by the mere touch of his pallium the sick were healed. He was so benevolent toward the poor that he supplied them not only with food but also with clothing, and while he gave his pallium to a poor sick man, he was at once healed. He likewise freed the possessed, and when he had sat thirteen years, called by St. Syrus, Mass being celebrated and peace given, and the people comforted with admonitions of salvation, he joyfully sought heaven. His body, carried into the church of St. Mary the Virgin, which Theodelinda, wife of Bertari king of the Lombards, built, is made illustrious by signs about the year of the Lord 690." This is another reckoning of the times, so that you may conjecture almost everything to be arbitrary. Nor may you safely accede to Ughelli, when he roundly declares: "He presided nine years, and rested in the Lord on the 22nd day of the month of July in the year 787: he prolonged his age even to the ninetieth year." Gaspari followed these things, although all the local writers confess his age to be most uncertain; but Gualla and Spelta expressly assert that he sat thirteen years, not merely nine years.

[8] but concerning de Gaspari, For the rest, to confess candidly and ingenuously, I judge these things can be so taken that from either opinion, I might almost say from both, one may without scruple dissent; as also a choice can be made between the eulogy of Ferrari and of Gaspari: the first we have already given; behold the other: "Jerome of Ticinum, as a youth given to the study of piety, nourished the prayer which he assiduously cultivated with frugality of food and with vigils. From his early age he was a lover and most zealous cultivator of chastity. At some time, summoned by the King of the Lombards, when he had hastened to the court, weary from the road and dripping with sweat, he took off his pallium, which, placed on a ray of the sun passing through a chink of the window (which seemed to him a pole), marvelously clung to it to the admiration of all the bystanders. Then, the ardor of his piety having increased with his age, from being sacristan of St. Mary at the Perticae, he is chosen bishop of his fatherland by the clergy admonished from heaven: for when the same clergy was consulting about electing a pontiff, and suppliantly praying to God, with three-day fasts and supplications, that it might be revealed to them whom they should take as Pontiff; there was one who with the highest prayers was assiduously beseeching the Virgin Mother of God, that she would in some way signify to whom the pontificate ought to be transferred. To him the Virgin appearing said: 'Admonish the clergy to elevate to the episcopate of their city my Chancellor, named Jerome, who, inflamed with zeal for religion, will be wholly bent on promoting the worship of God.'"

[9] But promoted to the episcopate he gave wonderful proofs of sanctity. he seemed a little more liberal. While he was distributing alms to the poor, beholding a needy man tossed by the chill of a fever, moved with compassion, he stripped himself of his pallium, and clothed the needy man, and at once the fever departed. Then the most holy man, loving humility, lest the fame of that miracle should spread abroad in public, commanded that it should be announced to no one, but that he should render that office of piety as accepted to the Queen of heaven, who had used the ministry of an unworthy servant. Equal virtue of Jerome shone forth in driving away devils, and diseases. In the Basilica of the Protomartyr Stephen a certain woman

vexed in dreadful ways by an unclean spirit, gnashing and raging, offered to the bystanders a spectacle worthy of pity. But when the demon, the most hostile tormentor of the possessed woman, learned that Jerome was coming thither, crying out at Jerome's approach, "I can no longer be here," it departed, and left the woman unharmed. When he was not far from the last day of his old age, he merited this heavenly vision. The divine Syrus, accompanied by a host of celestial minds, showing himself to him, said: "Rejoice, brother, be glad, for in the heavens a place of eternal glory is prepared for thee, wherein thou mayest enjoy it perpetually with us." Then at once he arose, and passed the night in prayers until dawn. But when the day dawned, amid the solemnities of the Mass he announced the heavenly vision to the clergy and to all the people. Having exhorted all to mutual love, and to the other commands of the Christian religion, imparting with sacred hand the blessing to all, praying to the Virgin Mother of God Mary, whom he had most holily worshiped in all his life, that all might be able to enjoy the heavenly joys with him, he returned home, and, afflicted with a most grievous disease, taken from human things, he passed to the celestial ones on the 11th of the Kalends of August in the year 787, in the ninth year of his pontificate: and buried in St. Mary at the Perticae, he is still honored with veneration.